


Tender Are Her Skies

by somedayisours



Series: A Splinter in My Mind [4]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: -Ish, A boy and his mannequin, Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Alternate Universe, Asexual Character, Asexual Relationship, Boy falls in love with inanimate object, By His Bootstraps, Canon-Typical Violence, Canonical Character Death, Dolores has a mid-Atlantic accent, Fear of Abandonment, Gen, I created a very big and obvious plothole, Inanimate object falls in love right back, POV Inanimate Object, Pet Names, Still a better love story than Twilight, Temporal Paradox, That’s weird right, This is for everyone speculating about Dolores being alive, Time Travel, Uncanny Valley, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-09
Updated: 2019-03-09
Packaged: 2019-11-13 16:32:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 881
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18035171
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/somedayisours/pseuds/somedayisours
Summary: In which someone—or something—breathes life into a hunk of moulded fiberglass. This is not the story of Pinocchio, nor is it of Pygmalion and Galatea. This is the story of Dolores.





	Tender Are Her Skies

**Author's Note:**

> Title from "Milk and Honey" by Jackson C. Frank.

"Dolores," he says with a fragile smile, "It's good to see you."

She's still thinking of melting, of Five's promise never to leave her alone. Looking at his nearly unfamiliar face, she knows if she had the ability to cry she's sure that's exactly what she would be doing at this moment.

Five's a boy once again, skinny and awkward in his own skin. He tries to play at being casual while wearing that same uniform—abet cleaner—she remembers from a mortal lifetime ago when they met for the very first time.

"I've missed you..."

'I miss you too,' she doesn't say, she can't say.

"Dolores—"

He sounds strange, his voice flush with something she's never heard from him before and when she forces herself to focus on his face his mouth's hanging open and his eyes are wide.

"You're crying," He breathes.

And that isn't right, it isn't what he should be saying to her in this moment of almost triumph. He's halfway to completing the plan he'd been dreaming of for over four decades the thing he says to her can't be that. She can't cry.

"Dolores!" He shouts with joy this time, grabbing at her stiff hands. "You're crying."

He yanks on her too hard in his excitement, pitching her forward on top of him. He lets out a surprised grunt, but by then even Dolores is consumed by the same dizzying surprise. Because she's caught herself on him, once frozen hands clumsily gripping onto his arms in an unconscious attempt to steady herself. The expression on his face then in something to behold.

'Oh...' She says to herself, then tries again because if she can cry and move why wouldn't she be able to speak? "Ooooooooo."

The appendage is now truly her right-hand twitches in its place on Five's arm. She watches as it tightens, the material of his school blazer bunching up under the force of her flexing fingers.

"...Dolores?"

He sounds unsure, almost nervous. She hasn't heard that emotion unfiltered from him in a long time.

Her 'yes' comes out more like a hiss, mostly indecipherable so she tries again with a steadier voice. "Yesssssss."

This close Dolores can count every individual blemish that decorates Five's new, younger, face. There's surprise and elation, then a darkening suspicion in his eyes. A calculating frown marring his features, brows coming together to form a recognizable expression.

"H-h-h-h-oooww?" She asks, voicing what Five is most definitely thinking.

"It could be—" Five doesn't get to finish, crying out wordlessly over something she hasn't yet realized.

All of it's too fast for her to process with her dazed state of mind, but she can identify the rapid fire of a gun—correction, guns—as Five drags them both out of range of the bullets, panting and wide-eyed.

She knows without having to look that even with a beyond healthy dose of bulletholes her lower half is in better condition than it had been what Five and she had first met. And by better, she refers to the fact that they're still attached.

"It's them," He says while cradling her awkwardly in his arms, a mockery of those romantic novels Five used to read to her. "Stay here." He commands, and then he's gone with a flash of pale blue light.

And, well, that was a given, unless he managed to anger another hole-and-corner organization while they were separated. Knowing Five's perchance for stirring up chaos, even during the most inappropriate of times, she wouldn't put it past him.

This isn't her first rodeo, and she really rather not be laying around waiting for Five to get them out of whatever jam he's caused like she had to in the past. She's still got both arms and the ability to move them, only one of her legs seems to understand what she wants it to do and even then it's more of a hindrance as she drags herself across the carpeted floor. She'd have more than that if The Commission's assigned agents hadn't decided to shoot up the place. You'd think they would have learned that spray and pray doesn't work with their usual clientele—targets—by now.

She doesn't make it far before she's being yanked by the hem of her shirt rather unceremoniously under the racks and into the next aisle. Her immediate response of flailing doesn't do much good, but she doesn't get her head blown off as it's Five she's come face-to-face with.

"Sorry, Dolores."

With one look at the regular-sized duffel bag Five has clutched in his other hand she knows what's coming next.

"Ditch the legs, I can't use them anyways."

His mouth spasms into something near genuine a smile, a look that fits his younger face far better than the doom-and-gloom one he'd been sporting. "God, I missed you."

"Yeah?" Dolores says fondly with her arms crossed over her chest in an attempt to make herself fit in the sack better. "Well, I love not getting my head—or yours—blown off. And those are police sirens, aren't they?"

"Yep."

Huddling together behind one of the tills with the cops on one side and those two pains in the ass on the other—having just avoided death—isn't half bad, all things considered.

**Author's Note:**

> I've always kinda debated whether Five took Dolores with him when he joined The Commission. I've kinda just said he did because that's the most common assumption made by the fandom...
> 
> To be honest, the drive to write this died pretty quickly, that's why it ends so abruptly without exploring how much further this AU could drive. And it has a ton of errors. I really hate the length of this, anything further will have about quadruple the amount of words. I'm not sure if I even like the style I wrote this in either. So don't expect much.


End file.
